The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-15
A SPANISH pRovERB.
Phlladelnhia Reoor,i,

true. If the old Jewish custom of writing some sentences of holy writ on piece of parchment and wearing it on the forehead or over the heart, could be revived the phy lactery should be inscribed with the words of the proverb the writer has quoted and put upon the brow of every youth in the land.
 Procrastination is not only the thief of time, as the poet hath it, but it is the besetting folly of the time. It is the laziness of the mind as dis tinguished from muscular laziness. Bodily disinclination for exertion may be the result of physical weak ness or of incapacity. But the put ting of until tomorrow. or the next day, or the next week, or the next year, of things that may be done to-day is an operation of the will.
 AS small children put of their easy tasks for the violet delights of play, so children ot a larger growth put of study and all the irksome labor that must be undergone in the requirement of knowledge, and as they grow older and find they must bring up the arrears of past neglect they keep on in the old habits of falling behind their immediate duties in all the relations of life.
 They die in arrears, owing service to their friends, to their associates and to society. If they dc no: also leave behind them unpaid debts of honor and trust, it is generally because they have lived long enough to wear out their credit.
 If the boys and girls could but be brought to see and believe what the grandmothers and grandfathcrs knew by sad experience, there might be a salutary change. If doting parents could be induced to insist on the prompt performance of proper tasks, not SO much on account of the neces- sity of the labor as iii order to the formation of the habit of doing at once whatever it may be proper and possible to do without delay, what future pain and modification might be avoided.
 The proyerb is true. By and By leads to the house of Never. There is absolutely no such thing as recovery of lost time and lost opportunity. What is put aside one day pushes aside something else the next day, and 30 on until the final day is reached Every procrastination works an ire repressible change in the life of the procrastinator. "What he should do" is continually carried forward in the book ot the recording angel in order to make room for "what he does do. /" As no day comes to any of us that does not bring its full share of new responsibilities, the to-days are never adequate for the neglected business of the yesterdays. Once in debt to time the debt remains to eternity.
 The schoolgirl who does not learn to read and write and spell and sew and do housework, neglecting her oppor- tunities to acquire such useful knowl- edge, is fitting herself for a washer woman if there be no money to be left to her by her parents. If they should have money to leave her, she would not know how to take care of it, and would probably be some mans incompetent wife, and possibly drudge or dupe.
 The schoolboy who neglects his studies and prefers fishing, base ball and inordinate play to the acquire ments of rudimentary knowledge will not be fit even to sell tape. He will not make competent weaver or blacksmith. He must enter the fields of uDskilled labor and take his chance of doing the rudest work for the smallest pay. If he should have A for tune left him he would only know how to spend it, and he would be in great danger of degenerating into A tramp, or falling into that ever-open pathway where, SO to speak, man walks down his own throat until he brings up in the gutter.
 That the writer is putting down the evil ways of procrastination with black pencil it is evident. Not every one who procrastinates is in danger of perdition.
 Procrastination in things proper and necessary to be done is only spoken of here. To deliberate upon what is proper to do is the part of wisdom. To hesitate after the proper course has been determined in accord ance with ones reason and conscience is the perilous thing which it is par ticularly desired to warn young peo- pie against. The writer knows of no single thing which is so threatening to the future of American youth. We have arrived at that condition of national opulence when there is no longer a hard necessity to drive young people forward in the struggle of life. Our children enjoy permissive to do or not to do which was not permitted or permissible to the children of the forefathers.
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